Demonic possession and the Christian

If you’re like a lot of Christians, the idea of a believer being controlled by a demon – what the Bible calls being “demonized” – is appalling to you. It just can’t happen, you think.

Well, let's see if I can change your mind. How about I start with a couple of real-world stories?

First up is the account of Dr. Ed Murphy’s daughter, Carolyn, which he details in his large work, The Handbook for Spiritual Warfare. Murphy describes how before he ever became seriously interested in the area of the demonic, his Christian daughter got involved in various occultic practices through peer influence and began to exhibit strange behavior.

Murphy would not accept that his daughter, who manifested all the evidence of saving grace, was under the thumb of a demon until he witnessed her out-of-the-ordinary behavior firsthand. “Dad”, she told him, “I don’t know what’s the matter with me. There seems to be something inside of me that takes hold and I do weird things. I love Jesus and I want to do what is right. What’s wrong with me?”^[1]

Or listen to a story relayed to Dr. Merrill Unger, a noted theologian and professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. Unger had, many years ago, written a book entitled Biblical Demonology, where he argued that a Christian cannot be demonically controlled.

Shortly after its publication, Unger began receiving letters from missionaries, pastors, and other Christians detailing their accounts with born-again believers who experienced demonization. After researching what had been sent to him and other cases, Unger edited his first work and ended up writing another book, What Demons can do to Saints, where he changed his opinion to one where he stated Christians can be demonized given certain conditions.

In that book, Unger recounts a letter he received from a pastor’s wife who became obsessed with speaking in tongues.^[2] Although her husband explained to the woman the biblical position on the matter, she continued her pursuit and learned the hard way that when you seek spiritual experiences outside the will of God, although the Creator may not respond to the request, something else may eventually answer. 

After finding a fringe group of supposed tongue-speaking believers who laid hands on her to receive the gift, she began speaking in tongues but wasn’t prepared for what followed. Dark and evil thoughts filled her mind, the situation worsening by the day, with the result being “Fourteen months after receiving the tongues, I was ready to take my life”, she wrote. Finally, the woman realized she had indeed received a spirit, but one that was anything but holy.

Both of these women were professing believers, so what happened? Were they not truly saved? Or can a Christian actually become demonized and severely oppressed by the enemy?

The New Testament uses the Greek word daimonizomenous 15 times to refer to people struggling with demonic oppression. Sometimes the translations use the term “demon-possessed” and others (such as the ESV) translate the word “oppressed by demons.” Those who have studied the subject correctly point out that the term is never applied to a believer in Scripture.

But does that mean Christians are immune to demonic oppression? While it’s true that we don’t find believers demon-oppressed in Scripture, remember the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. That being true, the question is, do we find anything in Scripture suggesting a Christian can’t be demonically oppressed? 

One of the better biblical arguments against demonization and the Christian is found in Luke 11 where Christ is rebuking the Pharisees for accusing Him of casting out demons via the power of the devil. Jesus then goes on to contrast true and false exorcisms along with the state of a person who is saved with one who is not when demons are involved.

Of the born-again, He says “When a strong man [Satan], fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. But when someone stronger than he [Christ] attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder” (vv. 21–22). But of the unsaved, He says, “When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first” (vv. 24–26).

If we’re reading that right and Christ “overpowers” the enemy when a person is saved, then why do we have cases such as the two women previously mentioned? Why do experienced pastors like Chuck Swindoll, in his little book entitled Demonism, say about Christians and demonization: “For a number of years I questioned this, but I am now convinced it can occur … I have personally worked with troubled, anguished Christians for many years. On a few occasions I have assisted in the painful process of relieving them of demons”?

Many answer that there is a distinction between being oppressed by demons vs. possessed. For example, in his book The Adversary, Dr. Mark Bubeck says, “It is my conviction that no believer can be possessed by an evil spirit in the same sense as an unbeliever can … A believer may be afflicted or even controlled in certain areas of his being, but he can never be owned or totally controlled as an unbeliever can.”^[3]

Whether you call it possessed or oppressed, I don’t know about you but the idea of being “afflicted or even controlled in certain areas of his being” by a demon isn’t a desirable thing. So, let me lay down what I would call a reasonable position on the matter.

If a Christian dwelt in an impregnable spiritual bubble, we wouldn’t find commands in Scripture to, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil” (Eph. 6:11) and “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

We wouldn’t be warned “do not give the devil an opportunity” (Eph. 4:27) and to “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8).

These admonitions and warnings in the Bible are to Christians and tell us we’re vulnerable to the enemy’s onslaught. Since that’s true, why think such assaults can’t touch our internal person if we open the door (even unwittingly) and let the adversary’s attack dogs through the opening?

When it comes to ensuring that doesn’t happen, one way to look at how we keep safe is to imagine a dangerous canine that lives within the boundaries of an electric/invisible fence. If we stay outside his domain, he can’t get to us. But cross that border into his sphere, then it’s game on from the dog’s standpoint.

The good news is that “The Son of God appeared … to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8), so Christians are ultimately victorious over the enemy who is never a match for the second person of the Trinity. As one demon said out of the mouth of their victim when confronted by a pastor, “I don’t fear you, but I’m afraid of the One who is inside you.”

In the end, I think it’s safe to say that staying away from the enemy’s turf and keeping close to Jesus is how we all win against the devil and guard against demonization.

Notes

[1] Ed Murphy, The Handbook for Spiritual Warfare (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2003), p. x.
[2] Merrill Unger, What Demons can do to Saints (Chicago: Moody, 1991), pp. 91-94.[3] Mark Bubeck, The Adversary (Chicago: Moody, 2013), p. 105.